Don Williams - Mills lets hands do the talking

Published: Tuesday, October 13, 1998

All summer, Dallas Cowboys teammates showed up at Ernie Mills' locker or took a chair next to him in meeting rooms. Mills told the Cowboys where to go and what to do in Chan Gailey's new passing attack.

They had something he craved that old feeling of camaraderie. He had something for barter that old feeling of comfort brought on by knowledge.

''It did seem kind of odd,'' Mills says. ''But it made me fit in even better and a lot easier. People come and talk to you and ask you different questions, so you stay more involved. You're not an outcast coming into a new situation.''

Mills off to best career start

Well, six weeks into the season, Ernie Mills has stopped talking with his mouth, which he does politely, almost imperceptibly, in a way that makes you wonder if any of it is loud enough to be captured on your tape-recorder tape. But when it comes to talking with his hands, Mills won't pipe down for opposing cornerbacks.

Take Sunday for instance. In the second quarter against the Carolina Panthers, Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett threw a fade-route pass with a little too much fade. It looked as though it would arc harmlessly out of bounds, in fact. Mills sighted the football too late to turn his body the way he wanted. Big deal. He caught it anyway. Touchdown.

'' I didn't want to make it that hard for him,'' said Garrett, who led the Cowboys to a 27-20 victory. ''He just made a great play. That's a very difficult thing to do when you're in the park on Saturday afternoon, let alone in this situation against a very good corner.''

It's fair to say Mills has accomplished more in six weeks than he did in the past two seasons combined. He had 18 receptions for 219 yards and two touchdowns to show for all of 1996 and 1997 and 17 catches for 329 yards and four scores to show for less than two months in Dallas.

I guess we've answered the question about who's No. 2 to Michael Irvin.

He is halfway to matching his career high of eight touchdowns. He is almost halfway to matching his all-time best 39 receptions, both from his 1995 campaign in Pittsburgh. And he makes it sound as simple as going to the clothier and picking out a suit that fits.

That Chan Gailey offense must be the right cut.

''This was the place I had looked for and hoped for,'' said Mills, who came here as a free agent. ''I told my agent to make sure he called Dallas, because I knew what type of offense they run, and comfort is a big key to how you play.''

Sunday, when Mills had five catches for 110 yards, probably was his best game since the January 1996 Super Bowl. Mills played for Pittsburgh against Dallas that day and caught a game-high eight passes.

He also picked up a torn knee ligament, no small thing.

Mills started the 1997 season on the physically unable to perform list and caught only seven passes once he came off. The calculated risk he took by leaving the Steelers, with whom he had spent an entire career, backfired.

Carolina paid him plenty for last season and threw him passes infrequently. So when his first career 100-yard performance coincided with his 102nd game, one against his ex team, you nodded and figured you knew. Getting even, right? Nuh-uh, Mills insisted, sounding awkward just talking about it. Sunday was not about squabbling with his ex.

''I think the fun thing about today's game was just competing against the guys that I practiced with and played with last year,'' Mills said. ''As a player you can't get caught up in hating another team. You may go out there and not focus like you're supposed to.''

As if on cue, one of his former Carolina teammates a cornerback, no less made his way from the visitors' locker room over to where Mills stood in front of a small circle of reporters. Mills' face lit up. The interviews waited for a brief reunion.

Squabbling with his ex? Hey, he's bigger than that.

''The situation happened last year when I played against Pittsburgh,'' Mills said. ''That was probably more of a weird feeling because I spent six years in Pittsburgh. I was only in Carolina one year. So I can't say it's much of a vendetta. I guess I didn't pan out the way they wanted me to. No hard feelings. They released me and now I'm here.''

And he's doing a lot of talking with his hands. It's a language the Cowboys like the sound of.